Multiverse of Lost Memories
by Kibou Yami
Summary: After Syaoran leaves, Sakura is forced into hiding, taking on a new identity and appearance. 7 years later, Syaoran returns, but things quickly spiral out of control as they face a crazed bully and a gang leader who wants to take over the world.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own Card Captor Sakura aka Card Captors.

'thoughts'

A/N – Hi! This is my first fanfic ever so please be nice. I know it's a little iffy, but I'd appreciate feedback. Always trying to improve my writing! - (FYI English isn't my first language.) Enjoy!

Multiverse of Lost Memories – Prologue

It started out as any normal day would, a normal day for a teenaged girl anyway. At age 17, Ying Fa attended Seijou High. When she was younger, she had had auburn hair and emerald green eyes. Currently, she hadn't acknowledged the friends she had made back then for many years. According to her old friends, she used to dress in lively colors and make every smile simply by being in the room.

Nowadays, she had shoulder length black hair and wore contacts to make her eyes an amazingly dark purple. She stayed in the background and hoped no one would notice her. Her closest friend had frowned on such behavior when the former brunette had started her change, but there was nothing she could do to stop the transformation. Eventually, she had given up and found new friends, forgetting about the brunette completely.

The brunette's father had gone away on a dig expected to last two or more years her freshman year and her brother had long since moved out and gone to college. He had become a doctor, just like he had wanted, but unfortunately, this left very little time for him to take care of himself, never mind visit his sister.

So she stayed in the house all by herself, living off the checks her father sent every two weeks and the occasional care package from her brother. Another of her old friends had moved back to England and hadn't stayed in touch. An old teacher, possibly the only female adult Ying Fa could confide in, had gone with him to take care of her ailing mother.

Ying Fa had built a wall around herself and no one could bring her out of it, not even her guardians; for she was someone special who had magic powers others can only dream of. Her sun guardian was sealed away in the magical book that had started her magical adventures, and her moon guardian had moved in with her brother. Her old circle of friends had abandoned her once they found that they could not help her.

There was one thing good that came out of all this though; she was the best student at Seijou High, possibly of the entire sector and had privileges the other students didn't have. For example, she could study at home and just hand in her work at the end of the week and she only had to attend each class once a week. Today was that day and she sighed, hoping Jason, the school player/antagonist/bully/pervert, wouldn't find her again. In an effort to avoid him, she had avoided him as much as possible by taking these privileges and ignoring him, but it didn't seem to be working.

She got ready for school and locked the door as she left her home. There were two others she had counted as best friends when she was in elementary school. They had moved back to Hong Kong on the orders of their superiors. They were of an ancient clan that trained their descendents in the art of magic as soon as they were able to learn. To disobey would have been suicide.

She missed all of them, but of these the four young best friends she had had; she held one above all others for she had finally figured out her feelings for this one young man, Li Xiao Lang or in Japanese, Li Syaoran. He was the closest to her heart and she lived only to see if he fulfilled his promise to come back to her. Yes, if you had not guessed so yet, this young lady under the assumed name of Ying Fa was really Kinomouto Sakura, Mistress of the Star Cards.

(to be continued)

Thanks for reading. Please review!


	2. Returns and Changes

A/N: looks at email account in shock Wow…I didn't think anyone would read this. Just for you two I'm going to update this early. You totally made my day! - You have no idea how happy I am. Thanks a lot! Oh, and just a warning, I kind of mixed the Japanese and the English dubbed names for the characters.

Disclaimer: I do not own Cardcaptors or Card Captor Sakura.

'thoughts'

Chapter 1

Just as the bell rang, Ying Fa slid into an empty seat at the back of the classroom and sighed in relief, having successfully dodged all of the students, what worried her especially were Jason's attempts at wooing her. 'At least I got through the morning all right,' she thought.

The teacher entered, "Good morning class. There is a new student joining our class today. I expect you to be courteous and helpful as he is from one of the most prominent families of China. I think some of you will recognize him from elementary school. Please welcome, Li Syaoran."

Ying Fa started, 'Oh no,' she thought, 'Why'd he have to come back _now_? Hopefully, he won't recognize me. I mean, I haven't used magic since locking the book away a year after he left so he can't sense any magical discharge and my aura's completely hidden and my appearance is different.'

Years ago, she would have fidgeted and sweated in nervousness. Over the years she had learned control and was able to relax and simply observe him as the rest of the class was. 'I wonder what he'd think of me now, hiding and skulking in the shadows, backing down from insults and threats when I could easily stop it. He'll hate me. Alright, Ying Fa, here is your mission; to thwart any chance of Li discovering you are Sakura. Do you accept?' She mentally nodded, 'Then start now.' Then she internally sweatdropped, 'Great, I'm talking to myself.'

"Li, you may sit next to Ying Fa," said the teacher, "Raise your hand, Ying Fa." She did as asked, hoping that he wouldn't recognize her.

Li blinked at the Chinese name on an obviously Japanese girl, but went to sit next to her. He sighed, 'My search for Sakura has just begun.'

Meanwhile, Ying Fa was internally sweating bullets and as soon as the bell rang, tried to bolt, but the teacher called her back. "Ying Fa, Li is in all of your classes. So could you do me a favor and act as his guide?"

Cursing her luck, she meekly answered, "Hai, sensei." She turned to Li, "Uh…I guess you should follow me. Our next class is Language Arts. We're starting calligraphy today."

Li just nodded and motioned for her to lead the way. Sakura inwardly cheered. He obviously had no idea who she was. Again, they were seated next to each other only this time, at the front of the class. It was Ying Fa's favorite class and she forgot all her troubles in it, expressing herself in brush and ink on the paper. (A/N: grrrrr…I hate English by the way. . I'm the total opposite of Sakura when it comes to school subjects.)

Li barely spoke and seemed to be thinking about something. When class ended, he turned to her and asked, "Would you happen to know a girl named Kinomouto Sakura?"

Inside, Ying Fa screamed and panicked, 'What am I going to do? I suck at lying!' She shook her head, "No girl of that name attends Seijou High. Why do you ask?" 'Whew, good job, partially answering the question, hope he doesn't notice that.'

"Oh…no reason…Do you know a Daidouji Tomoyo or Moon Eli? He might actually be going under Hiiragizawa Eli now."

Ying Fa grew angry at the mention of Tomoyo's name, but kept her voice neutral, "Daidouji-san changed her first name from Tomoyo to Madison. She's in our next class if you want to speak with her. Hiiragizawa-san moved back to London along with Mizuki-sensei," she answered coolly. She was still panicking like crazy inside.

Li sighed, "Arigatou. I should have known Hiiragizawa would run off with his fiancée."

Ying Fa bit her tongue, not wanting to say something that she shouldn't have known as Ying Fa. The truth of that matter was that Kaho had needed to take care of her mother and Eli only accompanied her because he had business to finish what with his parents dead and mansions to take care of. He had no interest in Kaho and they had broken off the engagement ages ago.

She showed him to the next class and this time sat at the back of the class while Li talked to Madison at the front of the classroom.

"Daidouji-san?" he asked, hardly recognizing the girl under all the make up and glamour. She wore the school uniform, but the top three buttons on the shirt were undone, revealing the pale, creamy skin and the skirt was hiked up. She looked like a slut.

"Hmm?" she turned around, "Oh! Li-kun, just call me Madison, it's what everyone else calls me. So, you finally came back, huh? When did you get here?"

Frowning, Li answered, "Yesterday afternoon. Listen, I spoke with a girl of this school and she said Sakura doesn't go here."

At this Madison visibly deflated.

"What happened?" Li asked.

"I'm…I'm not really sure. I mean, she started changing and wouldn't listen to me, so I gave up. I've lost contact with her since the end of elementary school," she answered fidgeting.

"What about her other friends?"

"They left long before I had."

"So it all started at the end of elementary school?"

"Yeah, after you left, though I can't even begin to imagine why."

Ying Fa, even though she sat at the back of the class, heard all of this and muttered, "Can't imagine why…hmph…I know very well why you little..." her voice dropped off.

As soon as music was over, she hesitantly walked up to Li, "Uh… Li, we have to go to Science now."

Madison turned to her and scowled, "Oh it's you again. Didn't I tell you to never be less than 20 feet from me?" she said disdainfully.

Ying Fa closed her eyes in an attempt to stem the flow of tears. She could take insults from anyone and even endure Jason's nigh sexual harassment, but to stand in front of Li and get insulted by Tomoyo of all people…'and he's not doing anything about it either'… "Hai, Daidouji-san."

"Don't talk to me!" Madison ordered.

Ying Fa nodded.

"Now, don't bother Li-kun ever again and get out of my sight!" Tomoyo snapped.

Li watched all of this passively and only spoke once Ying Fa was out the door. "I see you've changed as well, Daidouji-san."

She blinked, "I have? And I told you to call me Madison."

Li shook his head, "You have changed and not for the better, Daidouji-san. Just think about what you did to that girl just then."

Madison sighed in relief, "Oh her? She deserves it. She thinks that just because she's valedictorian that she's better than everyone else. She's a snob. She doesn't talk to anyone, do anything, or show up to social events."

"She just tried to talk to you and you told her to shut up. I've been with her all morning and she seems fine to me, only overly shy."

Madison's mouth opened and closed, "Li-kun, listen to me. That girl is nothing but bad news–"

Li glared at her, "It seems to me as if she's only bad news because she goes against the grain! And don't call me kun, san or sama will do fine. I am no longer any friend of yours."

Madison gaped, "You'd give up friendship with one of the most influential people in this city for a smartass know-it-all who thinks she's better than all of us!"

Ying Fa came back in, "Uh…Li-san, we're going to be late if we don't get to class–"

"Shut up! You're nothing but a stuck up brat and you've brainwashed Li!" Madison screeched.

Ying Fa took a step back and blinked, "Well, I can see I'm not wanted here. I-I'll leave you two alone," she backed out the door, "I'll just wait out–"

"I'm coming with you," Li interrupted, "We're finished, Daidouji-san. I have nothing left to say to you. I'm going to class. Come on, Ying Fa." He walked out of the classroom and Ying Fa hurried after him as Madison glared at her. As they walked, Li asked, "Why do you let her walk all over you like that?"

"I don't want to talk about it," she answered, then quickened the pace so that Li couldn't get a word in edgewise and only slowed when they got to the classroom. In truth, she just didn't want to tell him that she couldn't stand watching her cousin like that, but after all the futile attempts to talk to Madison, she had just learned to live with it, though every insult that came from those lips struck her heart as if someone had stabbed her with a dagger and had her flesh magically charmed to heal and twisted it every time Madison insulted her.

They got in just as the bell rang and seeing as how they were the last to class, were partnered up for the senior thesis paper and project. Something hit Ying Fa in the back of the head and she heard a few snickers, but ignored it. Li noticed this and frowned. He, however, followed her example and did nothing. This happened several times and at the end of class, Ying Fa sighed and shook her hair free of the multiple spit balls embedded in it. This was why she always had her hair up in a bun. When she left, Li spoke with the teacher who sighed when Li pointed out the spit balls.

"Hai, I did notice, but I'm not allowed to do anything unless she or a close friend of hers says something. (A/N: I know this isn't true for any school that I know of, but it works in the story. Why else would the teachers ignore the way the other students treat her and be so nice to her?) Unfortunately, she suffers in silence and has no friends to speak of. The entire faculty knows this and goes out of our way to make her last year here as bearable as possible, but we can't do anything that would truly matter unless she speaks up."

"Well, you can do something now, I'm her friend and I don't want to see her suffer like that."

The teacher smiled, "That's the first good news she'll hear in a long time. Off to class or lunch now, Li."

Li walked out of the classroom to find Ying Fa near the door, "We have History next. Then lunch, foreign language, and gym."

The next class went horribly. No one paid any attention to the teacher except Li and Ying Fa and she was the object of ridicule. Li looked on wonderingly as she ignored all the comments and concentrated on the lecture the teacher gave. Ying Fa was obviously a very different person from the one Madison described. The only question was, why didn't the school see that? He sighed as his thoughts turned to another girl surrounded in mystery. He had until he turned 19 to find Sakura and his birthday was in August. (A/N: anybody know when his real birthday is? I made this one up.) That gave him about 6 months. Maybe he should go visit Sakura's home; that would help, if she hadn't moved that is and if she had, maybe the new owner had a forwarding address.

During lunch he went around in search of Sakura's old friends, but they all gave him the same answer, Sakura hadn't been seen since elementary school and for some strange reason, no one had thought to look for her. Giving up on the hope that one of her friends knew what happened to her, he turned to acquaintances and family. He would get started right after school let out.

Ying Fa found him and showed him to Foreign Language. Li sighed. Next to Language Arts, Latin was his worst class, but he still did well. Again in this class, Ying Fa was ridiculed and did not react. Gym came as a relief. Ying Fa worked alone while the rest of the class either played basketball or ran. She did gymnastics that rivaled the things Li could do aided by magic. Li watched in surprise and fascination, pointing this out to Yamazaki. He had stumbled upon the boy when he had nearly tripped over Li, trying to tell a story and run at the same time without tying his shoe laces first.

"What are you looking at, Li? Oh her? She moved here when Secondary school started, went to a private school before. Personally, I don't think you should associate yourself with her. She _never ever_ talks. No one here knows her well so they assume her silence is arrogance. She's also the valedictorian. No one even came close to her GPA, can't really blame her for keeping her distance. She gets enough crap as it is from Jason, doesn't need more. Trust me, Li, she's a lost cause."

After a moment of watching Ying Fa perform a split and jumping into an aerial back flip from that position, he said, "That's not what Sakura would have done."

"Oh, Sakura, she's long gone, Li. Her brother's a doctor and her dad's on assignment. She moved away years ago, didn't leave an address though."

"You mean she moved away and didn't tell anyone, but you?"

"Not exactly, I think she sold the house because that's where Ying Fa lives and since she disappeared, I put two and two together and deduced that she moved away."

"So contacting her dad is impossible and her brother very unlikely."

"Got it in one." Yamazaki glanced at Li, "Why are you looking for her anyway?"

"Well, since I got back, I've seen everyone but her. I'm worried, that's all."

"Okay, tell me if you find anything. I'm sort of curious myself. Would have gone after her years ago if Chihiru (A/N: Is it Chihiru or Chiharu?) hadn't held me back. Good luck. Hey, we're up next for the basketball court."

Li reluctantly took his eyes off of Ying Fa. Something about her felt strange. She was a puzzle. Why would someone who is clearly Japanese have a Chinese name? And why does no one know her last name? And why did he get the feeling that things were going to get out of hand?

"OOOOOOHHHH, LIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!" came a shrill voice. (A/N: grinning give you three guesses who this is, first two don't count)

He groaned and turned around to see a raven haired girl standing behind the school fence, "Meilin?"

She struck a pose, "The one and only." She hadn't changed much, still wore her hair in pigtails and had the same annoyingly high pitched voice. Meilin then angrily asked, "Why did you leave without me?"

Li raised an eyebrow, "Besides the fact that your grandmother just died and the Elders had forbidden me help? I didn't think you'd want to come because I'd spend my time looking for Sakura and you'd be heartbroken…again."

She looked sheepish, "Oh…"

"What? You didn't think I left because you're annoying, did you?" Li crossed his arms.

"…sort of…anyway the Elders let me come to keep you company and to look after you. Now, before you protest I know you can take care of yourself and I didn't come because of that. They sent me because of that. I just wanted to see Japan again and all my old friends."

Li gave a small smile and then frowned, "About that–" the bell rang to signal the end of the day. "Let me go get my stuff."

"Okay." She waited patiently until he got back. Though her physical appearance hadn't changed much, inside she had really changed over the years and had no romantic feelings for Li anymore. She was a mature, young adult…who had a boyfriend named Ryo. (A/N: - I couldn't resist!)

Li got back from the locker room and said, "Right, about your friends, they've…changed, a _lot_ since we left."

"In what way?" she asked as they started to walk home.

"Well, they're pretty much snobs who pick on this one girl because she likes her space."

Meilin blinked, "That's cruel!"

"Yeah and the teachers can't do anything unless she or a friend speaks up for her."

"And she doesn't have any friends. The poor girl."

They arrived at the same apartment building he had lived in before and went up. "You're staying with me, right?" asked Li.

"Yeah. Madison is kind of out of the question after what you just told me," she said frowning.

"How'd you know her new name?" he asked opening the door.

"She told me to call her that, said it was her fashion name," Meilin answered, making quotation marks with her hands when she said fashion name.

"I've got homework to do, so, why don't you go unpack. We can go out for dinner," he suggested.

"Sure, I want to go see if the ice cream parlor's still there."

"Jason, let go of me!" a female voice drifted into the apartment.

The two exchanged glances and ran out the door.

"Not until you say yes," said Jason.

"No! Now, let me go!"

Li and Meilin finally got outside and found Ying Fa being held from behind by a blond oaf of a man.

"I said let me go!" she repeated.

"Say yes!" he yelled, tightening his hold around her arms.

"I warned you, you freaking SOB. Let me go this instant!" her violet eyes burned with anger.

"No."

"Fine!" By this time, Li and Meilin had split up, he going for the legs and she for the arms. The guy released her and she shot them a grateful smile. They froze when suddenly the tiny girl managed to throw him into a garbage collector ten feet away. "Now stop, bugging, me!" she checked her watch, "'Kuso, I'm going to be late for work…again. Thanks a lot Jason. Arigatou for the help you two. Got to jet, bye!"

Li and Meilin blinked as she ran away, "How-did she…_do_ that! I couldn't do that! The guy's like three times her size!"

"You've thrown heavier farther, Meilin," Li pointed out.

"Yeah, but I've had training! She looks like she'd break if you poke her the wrong way!"

"Shape hides strength, remember, Meilin."

She winced at the reminder of a particularly painful lesson, "Alright, you got me. But who was she and where'd she learn to do that?"

"That was Ying Fa, the girl I was telling you about. As for the other question, I have no idea," he said walking into the apartment building again, "But I intend to find out. I mean, if she knows how to fight, why would she let others walk all over her like that?"

"Maybe it was a one time thing. I mean, adrenaline can do funny things to you when it's running."

"That is a possibility. Her style was amateurish, like she'd never properly fought before."

"Did you ask her about Sakura?"

"Yeah, now that I think about it, I think she knows more than what she's letting on. She is living in Sakura's house. She has to know something about where Sakura went."

"That's tomorrow's problem. I've go to unpack and you've got to do homework. We'll talk about this later."

Li nodded in agreement and took out his books. He could tell this was not going to be easy. A couple of hours later, the two walked toward the ice cream parlor, stopping at Sakura's house first.

"Sense anything?" asked Meilin, observing the house. It hadn't changed much, just a little dirtier than normal and the lawn was well taken care of. There were flowers everywhere, even some ivy crawling up the side of the house.

"Nothing, very old traces of magic, but nothing that could lead us to Sakura. I wonder what happened to the Clow Cards." He asked as they resumed walking.

"She probably took them with her and they're Star Cards now, Li. Hey! Have you tried asking Eli?"

"No. He's in England. Why would he know where Sakura is if people in this city don't even know exactly when she disappeared?"

"I don't know. Maybe he keeps tabs on her, like he does on you."

"It's worth a shot. I'll call him after we get back."

They entered the ice cream parlor and sat down.

"Fancy seeing you two here." They looked up and found Ying Fa in a waitress uniform, "Thanks for bailing me out earlier by the way. I know Li-san, but who are you?"

"Rae Meilin. It's nice to meet you Ying Fa and we really didn't do anything."

"Yes you did! You got me out of his hold. Really good thing, too. I don't think I could have held him off any longer. Humph, he deserved everything he got. Honestly, trapping a girl and abducting her so she'll go out with you?" she shook her head. "So what can I get you folks?"

"I'll have number 11," said Li.

"Number 9, please," said Meilin. When Ying Fa left, she hissed, "She doesn't seem so bad. I wonder why the others don't see that."

Li shook his head, "She's a really nice girl. She just needs to open up a little. The others are just being dumb."

"Here you go, enjoy. I'll be back with the dessert menus when you're done." She had her timing down to a T because as soon as they finished their meals, she took their plates and gave them dessert menus. After they finished dessert, they tried to pay for the meal, but were stopped by the cashier.

Li looked stunned.

"The waitress serving you said it's on her, as a thank you for earlier," the guy explained.

"Oh, but–"

The guy smiled, "Forget it. Once she's made up her mind about something, nothing can change it. Have a nice night."

They left, Li vowing to find out if Ying Fa had any info at all about Sakura that she wasn't telling him. As he exited, he could have sworn Ying Fa's eyes flashed, but maybe it was just a trick of the light.

(to be continued)

I hope you liked it. I know a lot of characters are OOC. I'll explain later. Please review.

dbzgtfan2004 – my first reviewer ever! Thanks so much for reviewing!

dreamteam – I hope this answers your questions. Though, why she wants to stay hidden is a little bit of the above and partially due to something else I will reveal in upcoming chapters. Thank you for reviewing. I hope you liked the chapter.


	3. Valentine's Day Attack

A/N: I am sooooooooooo sorry! I had this typed a while ago and thought I posted it, but I didn't and then I finally had some time today and I logged on and I noticed I hadn't updated in three weeks! Gomen nasai! I hope you guys like it!

Oh! And thank you to Dark Matsuo for betaing! huggies!

Disclaimer: I do not own Cardcaptors aka Card Captor Sakura.

Chapter 2

The next day, Meilin went to school with him and found out for herself how much her friends had changed. Ying Fa wasn't in the first class and Li asked the teacher about it.

"Oh, Ying Fa? She only comes to class once a week. We arranged it special for her because she worked best in a non-contact environment."

"That explains a lot," Li mumbled, "Thank you, sensei."

He left and went to his next class. Again the entire day was filled with Ying Fa bashing. Li's and Meilin's dislike for their fellow class mates grew. After a while, the majority of the school had decided that if they weren't with them, they were against them and ridiculed them as well. The only problem was that the Li family was very influential and they had forgotten this very important fact. Pretty soon, the students found the teachers had become stricter and the punishments had become harsher. The students soon found out that rewards for being kind and the model student had increased exponentially. It was quite amazing really. The school had gone from rowdy and untamable, to the best behaved school in the city.

Unfortunately, there were some who did not submit and made Ying Fa's life a living hell. The first of Jason's attacks began right after the new rules had been put into place. He had gotten off lightly, only being suspended on put on probation. But he attacked her a second time when she had been in the girl's locker room, changing for gym. He had gotten expelled for that. This didn't stop him though. Things had been quite quiet and Ying Fa was tense, knowing Jason was planning something and it didn't bode well for her.

Jason had been lusting after her for years now and since this was possibly the last year they would ever be in the same vicinity, planned desperate measures to get her to go out with him on the day of love, Valentine's Day. It started a month before. Ying Fa was looking things up for her senior thesis at the library when one of Jason's flunkies came up to her and gave her a bouquet of roses, "Miss? Are you Ying Fa?"

She looked up from her books, "Hai, doushite?"

"These are for you, Ying Fa-san. He wants you to meet him outside."

"Who?"

"Jason," he answered and abruptly turned and left. She had escaped by going out the worker's entrance. 'Thank goodness I know the workers here so well.'

Over the next few weeks, Jason had taken to stalking her and sent her a deluge of gifts. To her it was a bit overwhelming as no guy had ever paid this much attention to her. She really didn't think she was that attractive. So she ignored the gifts and got to know Li and Meilin better. Or should I say, they got to know her better. She was very reluctant at letting them in, but seeing as over the weeks, they hadn't thrown one insult at her or bullied her, she started to open up. This was about three weeks after they had arrived.

To Li's and Meilin's great surprise, though they had had their suspicions before, she was nothing like the school thought she was or what they had thought she was like. In fact, they had a lot in common. They all loved action movies, anything to do with magic (though Li and Meilin didn't tell Ying Fa that magic actually existed), good food, and sports. They got along great. Sometimes Li forgot that she was a different person and thought of her as Sakura, but he thought, she was a totally different person, right? Yeah.

Putting aside his search for Sakura, Li found time to have fun as he never had before. The fun denied in his childhood, he experienced with Ying Fa and Meilin. Even Eli arriving at the end of January didn't put a damper on his fun. If Ying Fa was worried about all the gifts she was getting, she didn't show it because Li and Meilin hadn't picked up on anything being out of the ordinary. She happily introduced herself to Eli, once Li had reassured her that he was a good friend.

However, things got out of hand when Li and Eli received death threats to stay away from Ying Fa 2 weeks before Valentine's Day. Deciding not to go to the authorities because of the absurdity of it, Eli took the message to Ying Fa. That is how we find them, gathered around a Cherry tree, speaking in hushed tones. "Alright, I know this might come across as a little odd, but I've only been here for what? A week? I don't think it's normal to receive death threats for hanging out with a new friend."

Li's eyes widened, "You got one too? I thought it was just a joke!"

"Well," Meilin spoke up, "It can't be a coincidence if both of you got one. Whoever it is, they're after Ying Fa and there's only one suspect, Jason."

Ying Fa looked miserable, "This is going too far. Being bombarded with gifts is ok, but when he starts threatening my friends…I would go to the police, but all the evidence we've got is circumstantial."

"Well, we can't just ignore it," said Eli.

There was silence for a moment and then Meilin snapped her fingers, "I've got an idea! How about we all move into Ying Fa's house until the threat is over. That way we can look after each other better."

Ying Fa immediately protested, "Wait, I couldn't ask you guys to do that! You have your own lives and–"

"I think that's a good idea," said Eli, turning a deaf ear to her protests.

"Me, too," said Li.

"So we're in accord," said Meilin.

Ying Fa sighed in defeat, "Fine. I have three rooms not being used anyway and a sofa bed." 'I just hope Touya doesn't blow a gasket if he finds out 'the Chinese gaki' stayed in the house.'

Inwardly, Eli was frowning as he couldn't get into her mind at all. It was frustrating. Only a powerful magician should have been able to block him and he sensed no magic from her. He had never heard of a natural block being this powerful. 'Who are you Ying Fa?' There was also the mysterious disappearance of Sakura to think about. Yep, _very_ frustrating.

So the three moved in with her and stayed for the two weeks up to Valentine's Day. During this time, Eli had managed to turn Madison. It was as if she had awoken from a spell. (A/N: hint hint nudge nudge -) The minute Eli spoke to her, her eyes had cleared and she behaved like the Tomoyo of old. Yet another thing to add to his growing list of worries. Ying Fa treated Madison neutrally, as if she had just met her and didn't know what to think of her.

When Valentine's Day came, Eli left on a date with Tomoyo and Ryo surprised Meilin by flying in from Hong Kong to spend the day with her. This of course, left Li and Ying Fa alone.

Everything went off without a hitch until Li left Ying Fa along at home (she was taking a shower) to get some food. (A/N) They hadn't felt like cooking and none of the restaurants deliver OK?) In the half hour that Li was gone, Ying Fa had disappeared.

Li was walking back to the house with a few bags. He reached the porch and his eyes narrowed. The door was slightly ajar and unlocked. He could have sworn he had locked it. He walked in, senses on high alert. Immediately, he knew something was wrong. The entire hall was in disarray. There were wet spots here and there and the shower was still running. "Damn it all!"

He quickly took out his magic board and sword. Grabbing Ying Fa's favorite hair tie, he mentally ordered the board to show him where she was. A blue light instantly appeared and he ran in the direction it pointed. I seemed to take hours to find her when it was only a few minutes. As suspected, Jason had abducted her and dragged her to an abandoned warehouse. It was this warehouse that the light took Li and then disappeared.

"Guess she's inside," he said and cautiously entered.

Yells reached his ears from farther in, "Jason, let me go! You're hurting me!"

He ran as silently as he could toward the voices.

"Nobody _ever_ says no to me."

"Yeah? Well you know what? I've said no to you a million times over! Could you get a clue!"

Jason seemed to get redder in the face and Ying Fa backed away as far as she could in the chains he had put on her. 'Maybe it's not such a good idea to make him angry when you're only wearing a bathrobe, Sakura,' she thought. Her eyes caught slight movement in the shadows, 'Li!" she thought, 'great, now I can't use my magic. Huh?' Li signaled for her to distract Jason and she slightly nodded, 'No problemo.' "Hey and you know what? I bet that puny sized brain of your is the problem. What's the matter? Cat got your tongue? I feel bad for your mother, the poor thing, having to give birth to an oaf like you. Why don't you go find some bimbo? I bet she'll go for you, or maybe not. She might actually have a brain while you have the mentality of a horny monkey."

While she said this, Li crept up behind Jason who looked like he was about to slap her. There must have been a reflection off of her eyes because Jason turned around just in time to avoid Li's attack and give him a vicious kick to the stomach that knocked him to the wall behind him. Li grunted and slid down. Ying Fa looked on with worried eyes, unable to do a thing because of the chains fastening her to a mattress. She heard a sickening crunch signaling that Li had broken his arm.

"Why won't you leave me alone! This is none of your business you Chinese geek! You think you're so important, coming here, like you own the place. Well, Ying Fa is mine!" Jason yelled punctuating each word with a punch or a kick. Li, unable to fully function after breaking his arm and still winded from the blow to the stomach couldn't block in time and was beaten up. When Jason deemed Li unable to move, he tied him up and turned his attention back to Ying Fa.

"Li! No! You stupid bastard!" Ying Fa cried, seeing his condition.

"Shut up!" Jason yelled with a feral gleam in his eyes. He captured her jaw with his hand, "I'm going to make you scream my name in pleasure."

Eyes widening in terror, she struggled even harder against her bonds. Jason laughed at her pitiful attempts, "That's titanium alloy you're trying to break, sweetheart. No possible way." The feral gleam turned to a lustful one as he slowly removed the bathrobe, "And now, an aphrodisiac." He took a needle and pulled out a sick looking blue liquid. Struggle all she could, she couldn't get away from the needle and he injected it into her bloodstream.

She heard groaning and knew she still couldn't use her magic. "Li! Li help me!" she begged.

"Pretty boy can't do anything right now," Jason said divesting her of the scant coverings she had, "He's a little tied up." He looked at her admiringly, "Perfect." He took and oil and slowly started rubbing it all over her.

Traitorously, her body responded to his touch. The injection was working. She moaned when he took her nipple into his mouth and gasped with he pushed a finger into her womanhood, "Li…please…help…me," whispered weakly.

Jason's eyes flashed, "No, you'll only say my name! Now, say it!" She stubbornly refused him and he moved the finger that was inside her, causing her to moan. "Say my name!"

She opened her eyes, smirked, and said, "You may have control over my body, but you don't over my mind. I don't love you. Do what you want with me, but my heart will never be yours."

At the end of this speech, Jason was knocked over the head and fell forward unconscious. Li didn't stop there, chanting in ancient Latin, he opened a portal. A feeling of dread filled the area as it grew larger, large enough to push a human through. Jason was dragged into the portal and then it closed. Ying Fa watched the whole thing in disbelief, 'Where on earth did he learn to do _that_?' "Li?" she said hesitantly.

"Gomen nasai. I couldn't stop him from defiling you," he said, beating himself up for it and set to unlocking the chains.

Once the manacles were off her, she sat up and grabbed his chin, forcing him to look at her, "Li…he didn't…it was just…a finger…He didn't go all the way in either," she rushed through the words, blushing.

By now, Li's face was red at her…brazenness, "H…he still–"

"It's fine. He didn't…you know…and the memory will fade. Come on, let's go home," said Ying Fa, feeling a warmth bubble up in her stomach from the thought that he was living with her. She quickly shook those thoughts out of her head before her thoughts degenerated to…well you get the idea.

She looked around for her bathrobe and that was when Li noticed she was still in a state of undress. Achieving a new shade of red, he averted his eyes and handed her the robe. She, also blushing, accepted the article and pulled it on, tying it tight around her waist.

He looked at his arm while she was at it. "Li?" she said uncertainly, then noticed his arm, "You're hurt!"

"It's nothing," he denied, attempting to hide his arm behind his back.

"Nothing my ass!" Li's eyes widened at the colorful language. "Let me see it," she commanded.

"I'm fine, really," he protested, "I probably just bruised it."

"That arm is broken!"

"So I'll go to the hospital," Li shrugged nonchalantly.

Ying Fa bit her lip and then made up her mind, 'I can't use my star magic, but there's no way he could detect me if I used healer's magic.' "Why? So you can have your sword arm useless to you for six months? I don't think so."

Li's eyebrow rose. "Then what do you propose I do? I can't leave it like this and how did you know about my sword?"

Ying Fa pointed to it, "You brought it with you, silly. And a few days ago, I heard you and Meilin talking about sorcerers. You really should be more careful. And that portal…where…"

Li's eyes widened in panic. Ying Fa gave a small reassuring smile, "Don't worry. I won't tell anyone…if you don't tell about me."

"What about you?" he asked puzzled.

She gently took his broken arm and murmured something under her breath. Her hand glowed green, the color of Li's aura and Li felt the pain go away. He flexed his arm in amazement, "You have magic? But I don't sense anything from you."

"I'm a healer," 'half-truth' she said mentally, "I don't know why you can't sense me. Maybe it's just a natural defense or something like that. I don't really understand magic that well." 'Well that's partially true, I didn't and still don't. I just have more powers is all.' "I found out about it when I fell down a flight of stairs and broke my leg. I kind of just…wished the pain would go away and it did. That's the first time I've ever seen a color when I healed though." 'A little white lie never hurt anybody right? Touya had a color, but I'm not supposed to know him at this point. So did Yue for that matter.' She winced, remembering mangled wings, torn from taking the blasts of some enemy, which? She couldn't remember. There were too many that year.

Li's voice snapped her out of her reverie, "Green, the color of my aura. It's normal. One of my sisters is a Healer as well."

"Looks like we have a lot more in common than we originally thought," she said smiling. Her stomach rumbled and Li sweatdropped. She scratched the back of her head, "um…can we go eat? I'm starving!"

Li chuckled, "Sure. I left the food at the house. Let's go, I don't want to worry the others. It would be a mess. Has that drug worn off yet?" he asked noting her flushed cheeks.

"Nope!" she giggled, "It's probably the reason why I'm acting like nothing hap-"she suddenly fell backwards and Li caught her, "-pened…Li-kun?"

"I'm right here, Ying Fa, everything is going to be fine."

"Good."

Li found that she was drifting in between consciousness and unconsciousness and carried her home. Once there, he found she had a fever, possibly a side-effect of the drug. He got her comfortable and put all the food in the fridge, not feeling hungry anymore and stayed by Ying Fa's side. He was grateful that he had found out she was a healer of he would have not known not to give her medicine. One downside about being a Healer was that you couldn't take medicine. It messed with the natural healing magic in that person and they would be violently ill.

A few hours later, Eli and Meilin returned to the house. The hall was still a mess, but Li had managed to clean up the staircase and the upstairs hallway, that being only water and no broken objects. Eli magically restored the rest of it and they found Li.

"What the heck happened?" asked Meilin.

Li started as he had begun to fall asleep and motioned to move somewhere else. They followed him to the kitchen where he made himself a cup of coffee. "Jason kidnapped her while I was out picking up our food. I followed and got her out. He had given her some sort of drug and once it wore off, she fell unconscious and developed a fever. She's sleeping it off now."

"And nothing else happened?" asked Eli, sensing that Li was hiding something, but not being able to pry into his mind.

"She found out I'm a sorcerer."

"What! How!" exclaimed Meilin.

Li shushed her, "She saw me open a portal with my sword and overheard a conversation between you and me."

Meilin wince, "Great."

Li decided to keep Ying Fa's ability to heal a secret as he didn't want to betray her trust. She really had a hard time letting people into her life and Li wasn't about to destroy the fragile friendship they had. "One good thing though, it takes a load off my shoulders," Li said tiredly.

Eli nodded, "And since she knows about you and Meilin, I can tell her that Tomoyo and I know about magic as well."

Li sighed, "We can move back to our own places tomorrow. Jason can't bother us anymore."

"You called the police?" asked Meilin.

"No, I sent him to that prison dimension we discover years ago. No way he'll get out of there. He can rot there for all I care."

Meilin was surprised at the vehemence in his voice, "Li?"

"The bastard tried to rape her! If I ever see his face again–"

"Li, calm down. You said it yourself. He can't escape from where you put him," said Eli.

Li deflated, "Sorry, guys. I'm going to go check on Ying Fa."

They watched as he left, silent, until Meilin spoke, "He's angry because he almost didn't get there in time."

Eli nodded in agreement, "But there's something else, too, Meilin. He cares for Ying Fa in a way he thinks he should only for Sakura. He's confused."

"Do you think we'll ever find her?"

"We will. It's just a matter of time. I can sense traces of her magic, but they're very old, seven years approximately, which means she hasn't used her magic in about seven years, unless she has a magically cloaked room of course. She'll be out of practice and her aura should be easy to fin with all that unused magic, but for some reason, it feels as if she's disappeared into thin air. Very frustrating," said Eli thoughtfully.

"Even more so to Li. Come on, let's get some sleep," she said yawning, "We've got a lot of explaining to do in the morning."

They both went to sleep, neither of them noticing the glowing red eyes just outside the window.

(to be continued)

ChinaWings – Thank you for reviewing. I'll try my best to keep them long.

dreamteam – Not to worry, I know what you mean. I happen to be a Tomoyo fan too. I only made her that way because while I was envisioning this story, Sakura was all alone and I had to make it so that Tomoyo was out of the picture somehow. Turning her against Sakura came to mind and since she's very loyal to Sakura, Sakura putting a spell on her came to mind. I hope you don't mind. Thanks so much for reviewing.

Iridescent Twilight - Thank you! That's very kind of you to say. Sorry about the delayed chappie, like I said above, I thought I already posted this. Sorry again!

Squeaky mouse – That's a very good question, one that I'll be sure to address in the next chapter at length. Thanks for pointing that out and thanks for being so understanding.


	4. One out of Four, Li Xiao Lang

A/N: - back again with a new chappie! I am sooooooo sorry for not updating for so long. It's just I can't reach my beta for some reason or another and there was this one part of the chapter I couldn't get to sound like I wanted to. It still doesn't sound like I want it to, but you guys have waited long enough. (See if you can guess which part it is.) I know…bad excuse, throw things at me if you wish. And I hate to do this to you guys but I need to warn you that this is the beginning of the senior rush for me. (My parents are driving me wacko!) I originally intended to update once every two to three weeks, I'll do my best to keep that up, but I'm sure many of the older readers out there know how stressful things can be with three AP classes and applications to fill out. Once again, gomen nasai, minna-san.

Disclaimer: I do not own Card Captor Sakura aka CardCaptors

'thoughts'

"speech"

Chapter 3

The next morning, Li woke up in a chair. He looked at the bed and started when he noticed Ying Fa wasn't in it. He three off the blanket, 'How did that get there?' and searched for her. He found her outside on the porch drinking hot chocolate.

"Morning, Li," she said brightly.

"Ying Fa, you should be in bed. Not even Healers can recover that quickly."

"I'm perfectly fine, see? I'm not the average Healer. I recover a lot more quickly than the norm."

"I'll take your word for it," he said and turned to go back inside.

"Li?"

He turned around again, "Hai?"

"Thanks for saving me," she said, then kissed him on the cheek.

"I didn't do much," he denied.

She smirked, "Yeah, just knock the offender into a hell-like dimension from what I could see. Just accept my thanks, please?"

Li sighed, "Alright."

"Good. Want some hot chocolate?"

"Sure." His eyes followed her as she moved about in the kitchen, 'She's beautiful…wait a minute! What am I thinking? Sakura's the only one I love. She's my soul mate!'

'Yeah,' came a little voice in his head, 'but you have to admit she's hot. She was gorgeous yesterday with nothing on.'

'Shut up!'

'And look at that ass!' the voice said as Ying Fa leaned over to pick up the spoon she dropped, ignoring Li, 'And her tits and those legs that go on and on and on…'

"I said shut up!" Li yelled out loud and realized this at once, "Oh no, not you," he stammered to Ying Fa, "the voice in my head…that didn't come out right did it?"

Ying Fa giggled, 'oh, Syaoran you are too cute for words.' "It's alright. I know what you mean. An annoying little voice at the back of your head that states facts you don't want to hear?"

Li blinked, "Yeah, exactly. How did you–"

"Happens to me, too. I sometimes think it's my conscience and most of the time I listen to it. Most of the time it's right. Glad to know I'm not crazy."

Li smiled in response to her smile. This moment was wrecked when Meilin came crashing down the stairs, "Owwww…"

They rushed over. "Are you alright, Meilin," asked Ying Fa.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just a few bruises, nothing to worry ab-" she suddenly started, "Wait a minute. What are you doing out of bed?"

"I heal _very_ fast, haven't been really sick since I discovered my powers."

"And you're fine with everything that happened yesterday? I mean, you were almost-"

"Memories fade, I'll be fine. Now, since you're all awake, who wants breakfast?"

Li spotted Eli coming out of his room, but how did Ying Fa – she probably saw the door open.

As Eli walked down the stairs, he said, "How about we all just get cups of hot chocolate? We," he said indicating Meilin, Li, and himself, "Have some things to tell you."

"Alright, I'll go get the pot."

Once they had all settled in the living room, Eli started talking, "OK, there once was this guy named Clow Reed who…" he explained about the Clow cards, the Li clan, him being a reincarnate, and Sakura's adventures.

Ying Fa just sat and absorbed all this, trying not to laugh at the hilarity of Eli telling her about herself. At the end of it, she calmly said, "Well, since you told me your secret, I'll tell you mine. I'm a Healer house-sitting for the family that lives here. The girl you're looking for, Sakura, went abroad." 'My, my, my, this is an elaborate lie I'm conjuring,' she thought and continued, "She'll be back for summer break and then go off again. I'm a cousin of sorts to the family. I'm not blood kin, but they treat me like it. Madison," she spat the name out, "Never let me explain that. All she saw was a girl who suddenly appeared when Sakura disappeared. Not fun, I tell you. And she should probably not SPY when people are trying to have a PRIVATE CONVERSATION!"

They heard a crash as Madison fell out of the tree she had climbed to videotape the happenings. They surrounded her, "heh heh…hi guys?"

Eli helped her up, "How did you know she was there?" he asked.

"I saw the red recording light."

Madison hung her head, "Ying Fa, I want to say I'm sorry. What I did was wrong and hurtful and–"

"Apology accepted."

Madison blinked, "Really?"

Ying Fa nodded, "On one condition, you never do that to anyone again."

"I promise."

"Good, so where was I? Oh yeah, so I'm house-sitting until Fugitaka-san comes back from his dig this summer."

"So, I guess we wait for her to come back," said Meilin.

"Is there any way to contact her?" asked Li.

Ying Fa shook her head, 'Yeah, she's right in front of you.' "She left her cell phone, said something about it not working in a foreign country and even she doesn't know where she'll be a week later."

"Cell phones! That reminds me," said Madison taking out four phones in different colors; green for Li, blue for Eli, red for Meilin, and silver for Ying Fa. Her own was purple. "I put our numbers on speed dial in alphabetical order by first name. Eli's 1, I'm 2, Meilin's 3, Sakura would be 4, Li is 5, and Ying Fa's 6."

Eli smiled as Sakura somehow got the thing to slide to half its size and clipped it onto her waist band. (It's like the phones in _Matrix_, you know the ones where the top slides back and forth?) Madison gasped, "How did you do that! I've been trying to figure it out for two weeks!"

"It's easy really. See, you just press this little button on the side here. It unlocks the slide."

Madison blushed, "I…uh didn't see that."

Meilin inwardly laughed, 'And I thought Sakura was a ditz.'

There was an awkward silence for a bit until Eli broke it, "Well, I should really head home. I don't want to know what the state of my house is if Ruby succeeded in feeding Suppi sugar."

Meilin sighed, "And I've got to meet with my partner and start the thesis. I'll be by later for my things."

"Don't worry about it. I'll just bring it home with my stuff," said Li."

"And I've got a deadline to meet," said Madison, "I'm creating a new line made by teens for teens. See ya."

Soon Li and Ying Fa were alone. "I guess we should get started on that thesis too," said Li.

"Sure. Let me go get my notes."

Earlier that week, they had agreed to do it on space travel and if was possible to build a space ship fast enough to reach Pluto without the occupants dying of old age. Li's eyes widened as Ying Fa came down with a stack of papers reaching her eye level. "Those are notes?" he asked incredulously.

"Some of it. Part of it is diagrams for a ship, a generator, and things like that."

"Ying Fa, I think you over did your part, by a _lot_."

"I did?" Li gave her a look. "OK, so I did. Who cares? You're writing the paper and redrawing all of my blueprints. All that's left for me to do is make a model of the ship."

"And how am I supposed to sort through all this?" Li asked incredulously.

Ying Fa rolled her eyes, "If you look closely, I labeled everything and put it in chronological order. If you'd rather, you can have this instead," she said giving him a strange device. It was made from strange alloys and was shaped like a pen, only a little bit more flat and had five grooves in it.

"What is it?"

"You hold it in your hand like this," she demonstrated putting her fingers in the grooves and a holographic screen appeared, "Lock" she commanded so that when she took her hand away, the screen stayed. "Wow, cool, where'd you get his?"

"I built it after looking at some theories and junk. You can keep it. I have another one. Space data." The thing blipped and a list appeared, "See, research on what the fuel should be, specs on the generator, how to store food, gravity simulator, designs for the ship, etc."

"You…" Li said after a while, "Are a genius!"

"Why thank you." She really was. She had taken theories and built upon them to mentally build a spaceship that could go into hyperdrive and cross the galaxy in seconds. It was mind boggling.

"You know, I bet we could actually build this," he said.

"Li, half of the stuff we would need doesn't exist!"

"But you can make it from the technology we have."

She frowned in thought, muttering things under her breath, and then nodded, "Li you take care of the paper. I'll see if I can build a working model and we'll go from there."

And so they set to work, both thinking, 'This is going to blow the teacher's minds!' Li worked diligently and finished the paper in a month. It was more than 100 pages long. Ying Fa worked on a miniature that would be about the size of two of those giant Poland Springs bottles. Once Li was done, he helped Ying Fa build the model. This took up a lot of their time and Li asked for the same privilege as Ying Fa so they could finish it in time. His request was granted and by late May, they finished.

Ying Fa sighed happily, "I thought we were never going to finish in time."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. That generator…yeesh…how you managed to find something that would stabilize it, I'm not going to ask."

"Yeah, well, we can wash up now, your face is covered in soot."

"So is yours." They took a look at each other and burst out laughing. They couldn't stop because every time they looked at one another, they burst out in laughter again. It's quite amazing what lack of sleep does to someone. Finally, they regained control of themselves by not looking at the other. "Let's go clean ourselves off and then see if this thing works," Li suggested, starting to laugh again.

"Yeah, I'll take upstairs, you take the shower down here," she agreed, giggling.

They escaped before they burst out laughing again. Li finished first and waited for Ying Fa in the living room. When she came down, with her hair down and wet and dressed in a spaghetti strap and shorts, his pants began to get a little uncomfortable. Thankfully, his blush was covered by the redness of scrubbing the soot off. "You don't mind if I dress like this right?" she asked, "It was the only thing I could find. I really need to do the laundry."

"It's fine," he managed to say without squeaking. 'Those pale long, long, long, legs…' the voice was back. Li groaned inwardly.

"Okay," she said, grabbing the device and accidentally giving Li a view down her shirt. Li blushed and looked away, trying to ignore the instinct of grabbing her and kissing her senseless.

They called the device a holographic everything you could possibly imagine computer, holocomp for short and HC for shorter. "Here goes nothing," came her voice, bringing Li back down to earth. She punched in the command for lift off and heard the generator start to run and slowly, it lifted off the table and flew around the room once before landing again. Ying Fa jumped up and down squealing excitedly and accidentally tripped over the table leg. Li caught her before she hit her head on the table and for one agonizing moment, their eyes met and he kissed her. She started to respond before she came to her senses and stopped the kiss. "Li…you…I…"

Li pulled her up, "Ying Fa, I'm so sorry. I don't know what came over me. I just…I don't know anymore. I think I'm in love with you, but I'm in love with Sakura and I'm all confused. I feel drawn to you like I was to Sakura and–"

"Shh…" she smiled, gently, yet nervous inside. 'After all that time, I guess I should reveal myself. He's so confused and hurt. I can't bare it.' "There's a reason to the madness. You just have to calm yourself and listen to your heart."

Li blinked and relaxed, letting true quiet reign for the first time in years. He found the bond that pulled him towards Sakura and then the bond that pulled him towards Ying Fa. Realization struck him as he found the two were one and the same. He opened his eyes to see Ying Fa, no…Sakura looking down at her hands and fidgeting, "Sakura?"

She looked up, met his eyes, and looked down, "I'm so sorry, Li. I know I tricked you and–"

"Sakura?" he repeated, silencing her, "Why?"

She didn't know what to say. She had expected anger, incredulity, anything but calm acceptance. "I…I couldn't take it anymore. Everyone was expecting me to do something, be something. People kept coming, trying to take the cards. So I hid, I cast a spell making everyone believe I was gone and I had six years reprieve from the hounding and the heartache. You see, I couldn't endanger the school and my friends anymore. So I changed. There was also the fact that you never once tried to contact me during the seven years and I had given up hope of you ever coming back and it was selfish of me…forgive me?"

Li sighed which made her look at him, "Sakura, there is nothing to forgive, not to say that I'm not a little bit upset we'll address that later I promise." She winced. "But you did what was natural for someone deprived of her friends, loved ones, and with a threat after her. I would have done the same if I were you."

"So…you're not mad at me?" she asked hesitantly.

He chuckled, "I could never be mad at you for long."

She gave him a look.

"Alright, so maybe I can stay angry with you, but that was when I was arrogant little coldhearted fool that didn't appreciate you for what you were. Like I said I'm a little bit upset, but I'll get over it. What really upsets me is that you felt you couldn't contact me or someone to help you. You don't have to do everything alone you know."

She winced, "Right, sorry, I wasn't thinking very clearly."

"Clearly," Li said sarcastically.

After a moment of awkward silence in which she gathered up her courage, she asked, "Uh…you're not going to tell the others are you?"

Li frowned, thinking for a bit. "You're the only one that should tell them and soon," he finally answered, "But I'm not going to lie if one of them asks me about you."

She nodded, "At least give me until the end of June?"

"Fine, the end of June…I can't believe all that time we spent searching for you, you were right in front of us! Unbelievable," he said shaking his head.

Sakura gave a small smile, "Why did you have a deadline on finding me anyway?"

"That's my secret until I choose to disclose it," he answered enigmatically.

She got this strange look in her eyes, "Oh…come on, Li, tell me? Pretty please?"

Li's eyes widened, "AH! Puppy eyes! Get away!"

She giggled, "Fine. I did hide in plain sight for seven years. I should finish my Language Arts paper."

"Out of curiosity, how many final projects do you have left?" asked Li.

The tension in the room faded now that they were on safer topics. Sakura thought for a bit, "I just need to write the Language Arts paper, practice the piece I wrote for music, and practice my routine for gym."

Li's jaw dropped, "Where did you find the time to do everything else the teachers assigned?"

"Oh come on, it's not as if you have too much to do. You wrote a paper for Gym, History, Language Arts, Latin, and we just finished Science. All you have is music," she pointed out.

"Yeah," he admitted, "But still, you did most of the work on the science model and to my estimates, should still have a lot more to do than practice and write one paper."

"I work fast. A normal person would never have finished the model at all," she reasoned, then smiled, "And we both know I'm anything but normal." Glancing at the clock, she said, "It's nearly five. You should head home before Meilin comes over demanding what I've done to you."

Li nodded, "I'll see you tomorrow, then?"

Sakura nodded.

Just as Li reached the door, he turned around and said, "Sakura?"

"Hmm?"

"It's good to have you back…and…yeah, it's good to have you back," he finished awkwardly, rushing away.

Sakura stood in the doorway, watching him. 'What were you going to say to me, Syaoran?' she pondered, 'Well, at least he didn't blow up at me.' The telephone rang. She closed the door and picked it up, "Moshi moshi?"

There was no answer, just breathing.

"Hello, hello? Is anyone there? I can hear you, you know. What do you want?" she asked agitatedly.

"…Card…mistress…" the person rasped.

"Nani!" Sakura yelled in alarm. A split second later, she recognized the voice, "TOUYA! I'm going to kill you! You scared the shit out of me!" she screeched.

"Ow," came Touya's voice, "What are you trying to do? Break my eardrums?"

"Just because I let you in on the secret doesn't mean you should torment your sister, Touya," came another voice.

"Yukito! Or is it Yue right now?" she asked, lowering her voice to normal speaking levels, "Whatever, could you smack my brother for me? That was cruel, Touya. You made me believe there was someone after me! Yeesh! Next time you visit, I'm going to cream you!"

"Ow! Yukito!" Touya whined. Looks like Yukito had hit Touya.

Sakura ignored this and asked, "So what's up? It's not often you call."

"We just wanted to check and see if you were alright," Yukito replied.

"I'm fine. Eli's back in town and so is Meilin…and–"

"THE CHINESE GAKI!" Touya yelled.

Sakura's voice turned cold, "Touya. I'm 18. I think I can take care of myself don't you? We're not dating. I haven't dated anyone, ever. So lay off all right? I may be your younger sister, but I can beat you black and blue any day!"

"Sister complex," Yukito said absently.

"I do not have a sister complex!" Touya argued.

"Then prove it," Sakura challenged, "Let me live my own life. Don't control me or the people around me and don't you dare call dad and try to convince him to take me with him because I already had his blessing years ago."

Yukito silently, well not so silently because Sakura could still hear him, chuckled in the background. "Fine," came Touya's gruff voice, "…Listen, there's a gala in a couple of weeks. I've got tickets, but Yukito and I have other plans. Do you want them?"

"Where is it?"

"Some place downtown called the Emperor's Palace," replied Yukito.

"Send the tickets. There's no way I'm gonna miss out on that! The Emperor's Palace is this big fancy hotel. They have this amazing ball room and gardens and everything! What are you doing anyway?" she asked curiously.

A momentary silence," Um…well…uh…you see…"

By now Sakura was giggling, "Oh…I _see_. Have fun at the Bahamas boys."

Touya started, "How did you–"

"I have my ways," she answered. "I'm sure you'll have a _great_ time on the cruise," she said picking the info out of Touya's head, "How many tickets do you have?"

"Six," came the choked reply.

"Great. Lots of love! Bye!"

On the other end of the line, Touya was doing a great impression of a tomato as Yukito chuckled. "Aw, come on, it's not that bad. Your sister's not a kid anymore."

"She…she…she…" Touya stuttered pointing at the phone.

Yukito outright laughed at his embarrassment, "She's a bit girl now. Now stop that. I can think of better ways to spend our time."

Touya raised his eyebrows as the normally shy Yukito kissed him and pushed him backwards into their room…

The next day, Ying Fa got up and got ready for Monday classes. She got to school early and tracked down Li, Eli, Meilin, and Tomoyo. "Hey guys!" she called, "My b-…cousin called yesterday and said he had six tickets to the Emperor's Palace gala and he couldn't go. You guys wanna go?" 'Please let nobody have noticed that slip!' she thought desperately.

"Yeah!" shouted Tomoyo, "I've wanted to go there for ages!"

"Sure," said Li.

"OK," said Eli.

"Sounds like fun," said Meilin.

"I can make the dresses!" Tomoyo gushed, starry eyed.

Everyone sweatdropped and Sakura continued, "Uh, great. Meilin, call Ryo, see if he can come. It's in 2 weeks and–"

"2 WEEKS! Hmmm…no worries, Madison will work her magic!" she said winking.

"Uh…sure…Madison…" said Sakura, then the bell rang, "That's the first bell!"

The group separated and went to class. The only thing of note was that the teacher in the first class announced that there was a ski trip next week. "A ski trip? In June?" Meilin asked blankly.

"The weather just went really wacky on some of the smaller mountains and it snowed," Yamazaki explained, "The ski trip in December was canceled so the teachers decided to have it now."

"Very strange," said Tomoyo as Yamazaki left.

"Eli, you didn't have anything to do with this, did you?" Sakura asked suspiciously. (A/N: I will now be using her real name since our little Syaoran found out. Oh! And I'll be using Tomoyo, not Madison. Hope it's not too confusing.)

Eli scratched his head, "Well, I…might…"

"What happened?" asked Li.

"Remember when we were all at Ying Fa's house?" he asked.

Meilin nodded, "Yeah"

"And remember what I said about Ruby and Suppi?" he continued.

"Yeah," said Li, "But what does Suppi on a sugar high have to do with anything?"

Eli sighed, "They played around with one of my experiments, broke it, and …" he waved a hand at the sky.

"Let me guess, it was something to control weather," Tomoyo said.

Eli nodded, "It will wear off in two weeks…I hope."

Li shook his head and extended his magical senses, nodding, he said, "It should wear off in 2 weeks, 3 at the most. You're very lucky it won't affect the Earth's seasons or that would have been a disaster."

"I know," said Eli, "Note to self, _never_ leave Suppi alone with Ruby."

The rest of the day progressed without incident and they all met at Tomoyo's afterward so she could take their measurements. After she finished, she frowned, "Hey, Ying Fa, they're not making people wear kimonos, are they?"

Sakura smiled, "No, as far as I know, kimonos aren't required."

Tomoyo got a gleam in her eye, "Great. Meilin, you get Ryo's measurements and give me a picture of him so I know what colors to pick."

"Colors?" Meilin repeated bewildered, "For a tux?"

"NO!" Tomoyo said exasperatedly, "For the corsage!"

Meilin blinked, "A what?"

"Just do as she says," Li whispered, "She'll go maniac on you if you don't."

Meilin gave Tomoyo a picture and left confused. Sakura giggled and Li chuckled. Madison frowned again, "Li are you going solo or with someone?"

Li sobered, "That's a good question, my lady, would you do me the honor of letting me escort you to the gala?" he asked Sakura, winking as Tomoyo's eyes widened in shock.

Eli signaled for her to calm down, after all, it was only one night. Li was still waiting for an answer.

Giggling, Sakura replied, "Why, thank you, kind sir, I would love for a friend such as yourself to escort me to the gala."

Tomoyo's anger simmered down and the two left Eli and Tomoyo alone. Once out of sight, Li raised an eyebrow in question. "What?" asked Sakura, "She was about to go ballistic on you. I think you should thank me for saving you from her wrath."

"Thank you?" Li repeated, "I wouldn't have to if she knew," he pointed out.

"Ah, but you promised," she said in a singsong voice.

"Yeah, yeah," he sighed, "I promised."

"Yes!" Sakura punched the air, "I finally won an argument against you!"

Li looked on in amusement, 'She's got no idea she's won more than an argument…' "So, _Ying Fa_, are you going as yourself or your former self to the graduation ceremony?"

"I have to go as myself. That was the deal my brother and Yukito managed to strike with the principal my freshmen year," she replied softly and then in a total switch of mood said, "I'm really glad we don't have to go to classes anymore. Just pass in our projects and no more high school. Finals were killing my sleep!"

Li chuckled, "You look beautiful anyway."

She blushed.

"It's funny really. You chose the same name that I mentally call you and it took me months to figure it out."

"And Tomoyo's known me for 6 years and hasn't figured it out yet. Eli will probably know by the end of next week and Meilin will find out at graduation."

"You're planning it?" Li asked in shock.

"You did only give me until the end of June."

"That was you, Ying Fa," he pointed out.

"It was, wasn't it?" she asked sheepishly.

"Don't worry, everything will be fine. Tempers will fly, but everything will be fine," Li soothed.

"Oh thanks a lot," she said sarcastically, "You're making me feel so much better."

He gave her a funny look, "I wonder. Are you still ticklish?"

Her eyes widened in surprise, "Oh no…" She took off running with Li close behind her. He caught her just as they reached her house. She was laughing hysterically.

"Say it," he ordered.

"Say…what?" she asked gasping for breath.

Li thought about it for a second, "That I am the king of tickling…and I made you feel better."

"Xiao Lang, you…are the king…of tickling…and you made me feel better," she gasped out.

He finally stopped and let her breath. "Where did you hear that name?" he asked.

"What? Xiao Lang? It just popped into my head. Means Little Wolf right?" she asked.

"Yes, it's what my family calls me…strange that you should know it," he answered.

"Stranger still is finding you two on the ground out of breath," said a voice behind them.

Li scrambled up and helped Sakura up. "Uh…Meilin…it's not what you think," he started to say.

"Then what is it?" she asked impatiently.

"Uh…well, you see…" Li stammered.

While Li was trying to come up with a plausible excuse, Sakura came up behind Meilin glowing a soft silver. She muttered a word under her breath and Meilin's eyes glazed over.

Li stopped mid-sentence, "Sakura? What did you do?"

"Blocked the past few minutes from her memory until I tell her who I am," she whispered and then in a louder voice said, "So, Meilin, Li and I were going to get some ice cream, wanna come?"

Meilin blinked. "Hmm? Oh, yeah…" she said dazedly.

When they got to the parlor, there was a huge line and the workers were running around like bees. Meilin gave a disgruntled shine. Sakura smiled, "No worries, I work here, remember? Chocolate for Li, strawberry for Meilin, and double fudge brownie for me!"

The other two looked at each other. "She likes chocolate more than you do," said Meilin.

"I didn't think that was possible," said Li.

"I'm back," said Sakura, popping up with two cones and a cup.

They blinked, thinking, 'When did she go?'

She handed the two cones to Li and Meilin and kept the cup for herself. "It's beautiful out," she commented, then froze when a shadow passed overhead.

"Something wrong, Ying Fa?" asked Meilin.

"It's nothing," she replied, unknowingly repeating Yue's exact words. A bad vide was in the air. Something was coming. It was only a matter of time.

A/N: sorry sorry sorry please don't kill me! It's just the only place I found I could stop this chapter was a cliff hanger. Sorry! Anyways onto the replies:

Iridescent Twilight – thanks for being so understanding about the last one. Well Li found out in this one and he had a rather subdued reaction. Just wait until you get to Tomoyo's. Remember, she's been picking on Ying Fa for six years…

ChinaWings – I hope you're happy with his punishment.

Sakuracharm – heh…sorry…I didn't mean to…I only realized it was a cliffhanger when you reviewed. I didn't think anybody would actually be on the edge of their seats wanting to clobber me. Sorry about the late update too.

sweetsummer114 – thank you very much for reviewing

charice – I'm very pleased you think so. Thank you for the compliments.

Dragonblade – no the dragon of the credit card is not in this story. You know that was a typo! Anyways thank you for reviewing and I'll see you on Sunday hopefully

o.ONaokoStarO.o – lol, thanks for reviewing, it gave me a good laugh.

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